TAIPEI: Taiwan's export orders contracted for a seventh consecutive month in October, with orders to near neighbours China and Japan sharply down on year ago levels.
Orders fell 5.3 percent year on year in October, better than the 5.82 percent slide predicted in a Reuters poll.
Orders declined 4.5 percent in September.
"Demand for iPhone 6S components contributed to export orders for a second month in October, sending the value of information and telecommunication orders to a record level," said Kevin Wang, an analyst of Taishin Securities Investment Advisory in Taipei.
Orders from China in October were down 10.6 percent from a year earlier, and 24 percent down from Japan.
Orders from Europe were down 2.1 percent, but orders from the United States were 5.6 percent up. Among major sectors, orders for electronics goods fell 4 percent.
Taiwan´s economics ministry said the increase in information communication orders, which jumped 11 percent year on year, was bolstered by a major smartphone brand, without specifying which one.
The latest orders number will give the trade-reliant economy some encouragement going into the final quarter, when the year-end shopping would usually pick up.